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A VISIT TO LEWES 179
see them kept, and other poore folk that I would set a-worke. By the help of God, I have set a-worke a hundred persons ere this, all the year together."
A good tramp from Lewes is out west by Blackcap to Ditchling. The villages of Falmer and Stanmer are also west of Lewes, the latter with its beautiful park, thick with woods that clothe the combes and slopes of the encompassing downland. But more interesting is Ditchling, lying about six miles north-west, on the road between the county town and Hassocks. It has some picturesque old timbered houses, in one of which perchance Anne of Cleves dwelt once upon a time. To the south-east rises Ditchling Beacon, more than 800 feet high, crowned by an ancient hill-fort.
At Ditchling resided one Mr. Thomas Burgess, who, before he emigrated to New York, in 1815 or so, took it into his head to keep a diary, and long afterwards to write letters to his kinsfolk at home. Practice did not improve him as an etymologist, while his orthography was very wild indeed. Mr. Burgess, who was a Particular Baptist and a lay preacher, informs us, under March 14th, 1788, that he " went to Fryersoake to a Bull Bait to see My dog I seld him for 1 guineay upon Condition he was hurt, but as he receivd no Hurt I took |
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